2 Travers, The Killing Ground, p. 140.
3 Edmonds, Official History, 1916 Vol. I, pp. 122–4, 356.
4 Middlebrook in The First Day on the Somme, p. 88 says it was ‘as high as one third’.
5 Travers, The Killing Ground, pp. 133, 139.
6 There is a sequence in the film All Quiet on the Western Front (dir. Lewis Milestone, 1930, based on the book by Erich Maria Remarque, Im Westen nichts Neues, 1929) in which a group of German soldiers go slowly hysterical in a dugout under intense artillery fire that lasts for several days. One of them shakes uncontrollably; another suffers from nightmares; yet another screams out during the relentless hail of shells, ‘Why don’t we fight? Let’s do something, let’s go after them.’ One of the soldiers breaks and runs up into the trench where he is badly injured by a shell. They are also attacked by a plague of rats which they try to kill with their spades. When the barrage ends the company races from its dugout to take up positions in the front trench. This sequence vividly enacts what it must have been like for the defenders on the Somme front during the seven-day artillery bombardment.
7 Stephan Westmann, Surgeon with the Kaiser’s Army, pp. 74–5. Westmann served as a medical officer on the Western Front, was awarded the Iron Cross First Class, and became a surgeon in Berlin after the war. A vociferous anti-Nazi, he fled from Germany in 1933 and came to Britain, where he eventually opened a practice in Harley Street. In 1940 he changed his name to Stephen Westman and volunteered to run an emergency hospital for British forces in Glasgow taking the honorary rank of colonel, enabling him to say in later life that he had served ‘under two flags’. In his heavily accented English, he gave a memorable interview for the BBC’s The Great War series in 1964 in which he recited, almost word for word, this extract from his memoirs, which appears in episode 13 ‘The Devil is Coming’. His account might have been influenced by the scene in All Quiet on the Western Front described in n. 6 above.
8 Quoted in Brown, The Imperial War Museum Book of the Somme, pp. 4, 67.
9 Middlebrook, The First Day on the Somme, p. 280.
10 Quoted in Middlebrook, The First Day on the Somme, p. 157.
11 The images recorded by Geoffrey Malins and the other cameraman on the Somme front that day, J.B. McDowell, who was filming further south with 7th Division, were edited into a feature documentary called The Battle of the Somme. Released in August 1916 while the battle was still raging, the film created a huge impact and it is estimated that 20 million people went to the cinemas to see it. It is today one of the crown jewels of the Imperial War Museum film archive, IWM Film ref: IWM 191. For the story of the making of the film, the use of fakes and an analysis of its impact, see Downing, Secret Warriors, pp. 298–310.
12 Middlebrook, The First Day on the Somme, p. 213. Gary Sheffield questions whether this telephone call ever actually took place; see Sheffield, The Chief, pp. 172, 432.
13 See Appendix 1 for a detailed analysis of the figures.
14 Johnson and Rows, ‘Neurasthenia and War Neuroses’, pp. 16–17.
15 Ibid., pp. 2–8.
16 Quoted in Harrison, The Medical War, p. 72.
17 Quoted in Brown, The Imperial War Museum Book of the Somme, pp. 246–7.
18 Major-General Sir W.G. Macpherson, History of the Great War Based on Official Documents: Medical Services General History, Vol. III (hereafter Official History, Medical Services Vol. III), p. 45.
19 T. Howard Somervell, After Everest, pp. 25–7.
20 Macpherson, Official History, Medical Services Vol. III, pp. 46–9.
21 Maurice (ed.), The Life of General Lord Rawlinson of Trent, p. 162.
22 Harrison, The Medical War, p. 110.
23 The Times, 18 July 1916, p. 8.
6 ‘No More’
1 Cumbria: ‘V.M’, Record of the XIth (Service) Battalion Border Regt (Lonsdale), p. 14.
2 Ibid., pp. 15–19.
3 Quoted in Travers, The Killing Ground, p. 140.
4 That is, 15 shell shock cases out of 90 wounded.
5 TNA: WO 95/2403/1; a copy of the 11th Battalion Border Regiment War Diary is also held at Cumbria’s Museum of Military Life. I am grateful to Stuart Eastwood of the museum for his analysis of some of the other regimental War Diaries.
6 Edmonds, Official History, 1916 Vol. I, p. 400.
7 Wylly, The Border Regiment in the Great War, p. 84.
8 Quoted in Middlebrook, The First Day on the Somme, p. 164.
9 Cumbria: ‘V.M’, Record of the XIth (Service) Battalion Border Regt (Lonsdale), pp. 42, 44.
10 Penrith Observer, 11 July 1916, held at Cumbria’s Museum of Military Life.
11 This was under the old style; the Battle of the Boyne is today remembered on 12 July.
12 Falls, The History of the 36th (Ulster) Division, p. 52.
13 Edmonds, Official History, 1916 Vol. I, p. 423.
14 Brigadier F.P. Crozier, A Brass Hat in No Man’s Land, pp. 111–13.
15 Watson, Enduring the Great War, p. 30; Sheffield, The Somme, p. 68.
16 Interestingly, the 46th Division had the lowest casualty rate of any of the front-line divisions on 1 July, with losses of 2455; by comparison the 56th Division suffered losses of 4314. See Edmonds, Official History, 1916 Vol. I, p. 474.
17 Gerald Brenan, ‘A Survivor’s Story’ in Panichas (ed.), Promise of Greatness, pp. 44–5.
18 The following account comes from a document entitled ‘Proceedings of a Court of Enquiry dealing with the failure of part of an infantry battalion to carry out a raid …’ Copies are held at Wellcome, ref: RAMC/446/18, and in the RAMC Archives with the same reference number.
19 Sheffield, Leadership in the Trenches, p. 152.
20 Gary Sheffield, ‘An Army Commander on the Somme: Hubert Gough’ in Sheffield and Todman (eds), Command and Control on the Western Front, pp. 84–5.
21 Although Kirkwood was reduced to the ranks he carried on administering medical aid during the war in the 91st Field Ambulance. According to the London Gazette he was reappointed a temporary lieutenant in the RAMC in June 1917, no doubt far away from General Gough’s command. In December 1917 he was promoted to captain and he ended the war at this rank with the 8th Field Ambulance, never serving again as a battalion MO. He went back to South Africa after the war and died there, aged fifty-two, in 1931.
7 Attrition
1 This and all Hubbard’s letters are from IWM Documents 22009: Papers of Arthur Hubbard.
2 RWOCESS, p. 31.
3 Moran, Anatomy of Courage, pp. 10–11.
4 Quoted in Watson, Enduring the Great War, p. 88.
5 Watson, Enduring the Great War, p. 91.
6 Denis Winter, Death’s Men, p. 129.
7 J.G. Fuller, Troop Morale and Popular Culture, pp. 143–53.
8 Moran, Anatomy of Courage, pp. 75–6.
9 John Terraine, White Heat: The New Warfare 1914–1918, p. 95.
10 Major T.J. Mitchell and Miss G.M. Smith, History of the Great War Based on Official Documents: Medical Services: Casualties and Medical Statistics of the Great War, p. 41, and from German official statistics published in 1938, quoted in Watson, Enduring the Great War, p. 15.
11 RWOCESS, p. 34.
12 A.E. Wrench in his diary, quoted in Watson, Enduring the Great War, p. 28.
13 Moran, Anatomy of Courage, p. 42.
14 Quoted in Watson, Enduring the Great War, p. 31.
15 RWOCESS, pp. 77–9.
16 Ibid., p. 63.
17 From Norman Gladden, The Somme 1916, quoted in Winter, Death’s Men, p. 133.
18 Maurice (ed.), The Life of General Lord Rawlinson of Trent, p. 163.
19 BLHMA: MM7/3: letter from Maj.-Gen. Furse to Maj.-Gen. Montgomery, 26 July 1916.
20 Captain Wilfrid Miles, History of the Great War Based on Official Documents: Military Operations 1916, Vol. II (hereafter Official History, 1916 Vol. II), pp. 86–7. The conventional memory of this event is of horsemen charging ‘with their lances and with pennants flyi
ng, up the slope to High Wood … They simply galloped on through all that [machine gun fire] and horses and men dropping on the ground, with no hope against the machine guns … It was an absolute rout’, as in Lyn Macdonald, The Somme, pp. 137–8. Richard Holmes in Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front, pp. 440–1 showed this memory of the cavalry charge to be completely erroneous.
21 Sheffield, The Somme, pp. 83, 85.
22 Horne to his wife, 12 August 1916, in Robbins, British Generalship during the Great War, p. 123.
23 Gerald Brenan, ‘A Survivor’s Story’ in Panichas (ed.), Promise of Greatness, p. 45.
24 See Prologue.
25 IWM Documents 20330: Papers of Archibald McAllister Burgoyne.
26 Miles, Official History, 1916 Vol. II, p. 108.
27 Major C.A. Bill, The 15th Btn Royal Warwickshire Regt (2nd Birmingham Btn) in the Great War, p. 44.
28 See Prologue.
29 IWM Documents 12825: Papers of Major F. St J. Steadman.
30 Sheffield, Leadership in the Trenches, p. 140.
31 IWM Sound 8764 (reel 3) interview, recorded 1985.
32 RWOCESS, p. 73.
33 Robertson to Lord Esher, 22 July 1916, quoted in Philpott, Bloody Victory, p. 318.
34 Miles, Official History, 1916 Vol. II, pp. 174–5.
35 Johnson and Rows, ‘Neurasthenia and War Neuroses’, p. 10.
36 TNA: WO 95/45/8, WO 95/447/6.
37 Johnson and Rows, ‘Neurasthenia and War Neuroses’, p. 10.
38 RWOCESS, pp. 123–5.
39 TNA: WO 95/45/9.
40 Myers, Shell Shock in France, p. 108.
41 RWOCESS, pp. 39–41.
42 IWM Documents 612: Papers of Captain L. Gameson. Gameson kept this typed notice in his papers and was generally hostile to the official attitude towards shell shock.
43 Gordon Holmes estimates between 4 per cent and 10 per cent, RWOCESS, p. 39; Johnson and Rows, ‘Neurasthenia and War Neuroses’, p. 18, has the lowest estimate at 2.5 per cent.
44 RWOCESS, p. 81.
45 Quoted in Johnson and Rows, ‘Neurasthenia and War Neuroses’, p. 15.
8 Yard by Yard – From Pozières to the Ancre
1 RWOCESS, p. 25.
2 Sheffield, Leadership in the Trenches, p. 167.
3 Charles Bean, The Official History of Australia in the War, Vol. III, The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1916 (hereafter Australian Official History Vol. III, 1916), p. 70.
4 See Chapter 5. Newfoundland in 1916 was not part of Canada but was independent.
5 See Chapter 7. The quote is from Miles, Official History, 1916 Vol. II, p. 108.
6 Miles, Official History, 1916 Vol. II, p. 134.
7 http://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/36/article.asp (accessed February 2015).
8 For a full account of the discovery, identification and reburial of the bodies see Julie Summers (compiler), Remembering Fromelles.
9 Bean, Australian Official History Vol. III, 1916, p. 468.
10 From Cadmus, Posiers, in the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, quoted in Philpott, Bloody Victory, p. 246.
11 Quoted in Terraine, Douglas Haig, p. 214.
12 Bean, Australian Official History Vol. III, 1916, p. 471.
13 Quoted in Bean, Australian Official History Vol. III, 1916, p. 494.
14 Ibid., p. 519.
15 Ibid., p. 534.
16 Quoted in Bean, Australian Official History Vol. III, 1916, pp. 553–4.
17 Ibid., pp. 579–81.
18 See Appendix 1.
19 Bean, Australian Official History Vol. III, 1916, p. 597.
20 Quoted in Bean, Australian Official History Vol. III, 1916, p. 591.
21 Sheffield and Bourne (eds), Douglas Haig, War Diaries and Letters, entry for 29 July 1916, p. 211.
22 Miles, Official History, 1916 Vol. II, p. 208.
23 Quoted in Bean, Australian Official History Vol. III, 1916, pp. 658–61.
24 Ibid., p. 720.
25 Ibid., p. 724.
26 BLHMA: Montgomery-Massingberd Papers MM7/3. It was to this questionnaire that Brigadier Reginald John Kentish, who had been in charge of the 76th Brigade during the long bitter fighting for Delville Wood, sent a reply headed ‘The Limits of Endurance of the Infantry Soldier’; see Prologue.
27 From the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, quoted in Philpott, Bloody Victory, p. 248.
28 Quoted in Bean, Australian Official History, Vol. III, 1916, p. 876.
29 The Australian Official History was published in twelve volumes between 1920 and 1942; Bean wrote six of the volumes.
30 A.F. Wedd (ed.), German Students’ War Letters, pp. 322–3.
31 See David Fletcher, The British Tanks; Downing, Secret Warriors, pp. 193ff.
32 Christy Campbell, Band of Brigands, pp. 184, 207, 220. The officer who had trained and prepared the tank crews for action later had a nervous breakdown and shot himself; see Band of Brigands, p. 402.
33 Lloyd George blamed him at the time; others have blamed him since, including Winston Churchill, The Great Crisis, and Basil Liddell Hart, The First World War, p. 262.
34 The Times, 18 September 1916.
35 Miles, Official History, 1916 Vol. II, p. 343.
36 Quoted in Col. H. Stewart, The New Zealand Division, 1916–1919, p. 107.
37 Miles, Official History, 1916 Vol. II, p. 524.
38 TNA: WO 95/2403/1; Cumbria: 11th Borders War Diary, 18 November 1916.
39 Miles, Official History, 1916 Vol. II, p. 535.
40 Churchill, The World Crisis, Vol. III, 1916–1918 Part 1, pp. 195–6. Others who took a similar view include Liddell Hart, History of the First World War, Chapter 6.
41 See for instance Terraine, Douglas Haig, pp. 229–30; Sheffield, The Somme, pp. 157–60; Philpott, Bloody Victory, p. 8.
42 The British Official History claimed that total British losses, killed, wounded, missing and taken prisoner on the Somme between 1 July and 30 November were 419,654 and French losses were 194,451 (total Allied losses of 614,105); the British losses include a small percentage listed as missing at the time who later returned. See Edmonds, Official History, 1916 Vol. I, pp. 496–7. The Germans had a different system for adding up casualties, which did not include wounded who later returned to their units; they claimed their losses were about 500,000 (not including the seven-day offensive before 1 July). The British Official History controversially estimated German losses as high as 680,000; see Edmonds, Preface in Miles, Official History, 1916 Vol. II, p. xv. Recent calculations put German losses at somewhere between 500,000 and 600,000; see Sheffield, The Somme, p. 151.
43 Sheffield, The Somme, pp. 155–6.
44 Dudley McCarthy, Gallipoli to the Somme, p. 254.
45 Ibid., pp. 261, 268ff.
46 For a brief account of the establishment of the Imperial War Museum see Downing, Secret Warriors, pp. 331ff.
9 Rough Justice
1 Myers, Shell Shock in France, p. 83.
2 Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That, p. 112.
3 Gerard Oram, Death Sentences, p. 15.
4 RWOCESS, pp. 43–4.
5 TNA: WO 93/49; Julian Putkowski and Julian Sykes, Shot at Dawn, pp. 13ff.
6 Putkowski and Sykes, Shot at Dawn, pp. 23–6.
7 Sheffield, The Chief, p. 145.
8 Wellcome: RAMC/446/18. Also held in the RAMC Archives with the same ref no.
9 Sheffield and Bourne (eds), Douglas Haig: War Diaries and Letters, p. 259; entry for 6 December 1916.
10 There are several websites devoted to the cases of those ‘shot at dawn’, for instance www.ww1cemeteries.com/othercemeteries/shotatdawnlist.htm.
11 RWOCESS, p. 66.
12 Ibid., p. 17.
13 Ibid., pp. 28–9.
14 Ibid., p. 48.
15 TNA: WO/95/2587/2: War Diary of 17th Sherwood Foresters.
16 TNA: WO 93/49; Putkowski and Sykes, Shot at Dawn, p. 106.
17 TNA: WO/95/2587/2: War Diary of 17th Sherwood Forest
ers.
18 TNA: WO 93/49; Putkowski and Sykes, Shot at Dawn, pp. 117–18; Babington, Shell Shock, p. 93.
19 TNA: WO 71/509.
20 Putkowski and Sykes, Shot at Dawn, pp. 41, 145 and passim.
21 Crozier, A Brass Hat in No Man’s Land, p. 47.
22 Hansard Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, 1917, Vol. 11, column 1499, 14 December 1917.
23 Babington, Shell Shock, p. 115; the statement was read out in the House of Commons on 14 March 1918.
24 See Chapter 11.
25 RWOCESS, p. 140.
26 Paths of Glory, A Bryna Production for United Artists, 1957. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, produced by James Harris; screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson; starring Kirk Douglas, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready. The film differs significantly from Cobb’s 1935 book, moving the character of Colonel Dax (played by Kirk Douglas) from the periphery to the centre of the story as the commander of the battalion that is accused by the divisional commander General Mireau (George Macready) of displaying cowardice. Dax is presented as having been a lawyer before the war and mounts a spirited defence of the three men, but the court refuses to listen to any evidence and is clearly determined to find the men guilty. The film ends with the brutal shooting of the three men as the camera faces them head on. There is nowhere else for the viewer to look. Earlier, the film also contains an interesting scene relevant to the present book when General Mireau walks through the front trench asking soldiers ‘Are you ready to kill more Germans?’ All the French soldiers mumble something appropriate, except for one poor man who can barely get any words out at all. ‘He has shell shock,’ says his sergeant. ‘There is no such thing as shell shock,’ shouts Mireau, who insists the man must be removed from the battalion and tells the sergeant, ‘I won’t have brave men contaminated by him.’
27 Oram, Death Sentences, p. 14; records from the Indian army have not survived.
28 Bean, Australian Official History Vol. III, 1916, p. 871.
10 Laboratory of the Mind
1 The Times, 4 November 1914.
2 RWOCESS, pp. 39–41.
3 Moran, Anatomy of Courage, p. 25.
Breakdown Page 36